Bare necessities

 Kathy Griffin’s Thursday show at the Majestic Theatre is sold out. If she keeps this up, she just might move up to the C-List.

Bouncing around the TV last night between innings of the Astros’ latest loss, I ran across Griffin’s comedy special, “Strong Black Woman,” in progress on the Bravo Network. I stopped long enough to hear her amusing tale of having to suck up to Celine Dion to pay off the winner of an auction — a guy who originally thought he was going with Griffin to a Kelly Clarkson concert and meet-and-greet. Unfortunately, Clarkson canceled (bronchitis, not poor ticket sales). So Griffin, who had said some fairly nasty things about Celine (calling her husband some unkind things and her Vegas show “Cirque du Celine”), had major suckage to accomplish.

OK back to the Astros. When I went back to Bravo, Griffin was bare-legged on stage, pants around her ankles. I couldn’t find a video clip to fill in what I had missed, but I think it involved a mishap involving her dogs, a fancy hotel and a nature break gone bad. When I picked up the bit, Griffin was demonstrating how she approached the hotel desk to explain her predicament. Much to her chagrin, she had to wait in line, pants still dragging the ground. Made me wish I’d given up on the Astros sooner.

 Speaking of bare leg — and lots of other bare things — a new DVD version of “Showgirls” came out today. Just what we needed — the single-disc “Fully Exposed Edition” of what has been reviled as one of the worst movies of all time. According to amazon.com, this is the 1995 film’s third DVD release — the original in 2000 and a boxed set in 2004.

The new version, as it turns out, has the same version of the film as the 2004 release, minus the bonus material. That version attempted to capitalize on the film’s “so bad, it’s good” reputation by including a commentary track by a guy who points out that everyone involved in the film made “the worst possible decision at every time.” The movie’s trivia section on imdb.com points out that star Elizabeth Berkley spends a full 20 minutes of the two-hour film naked.

But it’s the leg I remember. The iconic image for the movie was a striking remake of a photo by a Czech photographer that featured a golden leg about a mile long. Would you believe that image actually made the cover of Weekender back in ’95?

It took some persuading, and it seems kinda ridiculous in hindsight. But the film was considered newsworthy at the the time because of its director (Paul Verhoven, of “Basic Instinct”/”Total Recall”/”Robocop” fame) and screenwriter (Joe Eszterhas, whose credits also included “Basic Instinct,” plus “Jagged Edge” and “Sliver”). And it was the rare NC-17 film that received a wide release. In S.A., it opened at the Rivercenter 9, the Crossroads 6 and the Bandera 6.

And really, what would you rather have seen on the cover? The other options that week (Sept. 22, 1995) included Bush, Randy Travis, Filter, the Nixons, Medina Lake Cajun Festival and the movies “Seven” (which turned out to be a huge hit, but who knew?) and “Unstrung Heroes.” Plus I like the way that golden “Showgirls” leg is stepping on a picture of Bush at the bottom of the page.

Yes, the bad reviews were already flowing in. “All ‘Showgirls’ does is show girls,” Larry Ratliff wrote. ” ‘Showgirls” strips for action, then falls on its butt,” was Bob Polunsky’s take. But that just made it even more entertaining.

(FOOTNOTE: Glancing at the Cinema Capsules in that Weekender was interesting. Some of the movies playing at that time — “Apollo 13,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Babe,” “Braveheart” and “Desperado”).